A Day at the Races - Greyhound - C&C Welcome

edunon

Few friends came to visit the other day and we found the perfect excuse to go to the greyhound races in Harold's Cross. I've never brought the camera with me, this time didn't miss the chance.

Arrival, not very crowded yet, some people checking who the favorites are...



Pretty much the same outside



The bookies trying to convice people they pay the best money



Dogs & co get ready



Here we come!



The favorites get in front positions



Last effort



Fresh cash for the lucky winners



The others keep the faith



At the bar a bit of everything



The sun says bye and two more races to come



Last chances to soil the hole in the pocket



Darkness makes very difficult to get sharp images, the beers didn't help at all..


It wasn't bad at all!

CONMIKE12

I like them all ,but 7 and 11 really stand out for me.

elven

I have a few comments, if they are of any interest to you...

2 - I think a portrait of the bloke leaning on the railing would have been better than including the whole thing, I see what you're going for but there's nothing to focus on apart from him, so the empty track is wasted space in theframe, essentially. It's possibly because the railing dominates the scene.

3 - that guy looks like a right wheeler dealer, it would have been great to see him and the boy interacting with the sign with the horse names between and behind them, there's maybe a bit much going on in the shot as is - but I understand you probably took the picture from that angle for a reason and that's cool...

4 - Ah now I love this. Something about them all striding out with the dogs, looking so serious and slightly gangstery, with lots of contrast and a nice uncluttered background, I think it just works. I really do like it.


5 - Nice and sharp on the dogs but there's a lot of distractions, with the cages in the background and the brooms (?!) out of focus in the foreground, and maybe a wee bit too much empty space in front of them. I'm impressed at your focusing though.

6 - You've caught great expressions on the dogs' faces! Lovely and sharp too, great focusing again, and I really like the people in the background too.

12 - There's something I like about this one but I can't put my finger on it. It's cool how the blokes are at either side and the sign is in the middle, it just seems to balance very well.

I hope you can take something from the comments - of course they are given safe in the knowledge that my efforts at a similar event would be shocking

Dundhoone

I'd like to see 4, 5 6 and 7 in colour. Greyhound races are so colourfull!

Fionn

i suppose the B&W give a feel for the sport set in another time!

nice shots BTW

edunon

Thank you very much for the comments. I found quite difficult to make photos of the bookies, the area is usually crowded and you don't have much time before they realise and ruin the photo... I preffer b&w over color, when seeing the photos there is nothing distracting, also people expressions gain a bit.

Shrimp

It seems that white is very over-powering in this set. I mean it looks fine, but the white in the photos is a bit too white. Did u shoot in raw?

AlisonB

hey Edunon,

really like some of these pics. I'm not sure about the first two -
not exactly sure what the point of focus is. I agree with Elven, the second would have been a great portrait of the guy against the railing.

The sky in a few shots is a bit flat, you have a few clouds, so if there's a bit of blue in the sky why not try and use selective color and darken the sky a bit. A few of your shots also could be cropped a bit tighter. I always try and crop to the golden ratio 1:1.618. I'm brainwashed into thinking it's more pleasing to the eye who knows.


I love the folowing shots:

Last chances to soil the hole in the pocket - great capture
The sun says bye and two more races to come - very nice, almost commercial
Last effort - Love this one , i think my dad would have this on a wall.

edunon

Shrimp: I always shot in Raw, processed with Aperture, I'm getting to a point where I can get the most of its capabilities, leaving Photoshop for very rare occasions. I tried to get old style b&w, having blacks really blacks and same with whites.

Alison: Thank you for your comments. On the first two I've tried to show a relaxed time prior to the races, probably not as I should. As it was sunset, outside is a bit dark, while the sky still has some light, that makes a lot of contrast, leaving the sky almost white, with few dark clouds.
I have a crop ratio of 1.4 (7x5) and tried to keep it all the time, apart from the square one. I'll try your cropping ratio to see if improves. Thank you for pointing to this.